On February 28th, the billionth match of Halo 3 was played. A milestone for the four gamers who played it to be very proud of. But to really hammer it down and make live-in girlfriends everywhere cringe, Bungie decided to calculate exactly what the billionth game of Halo 3 means to the world—how many hours, total by everyone everywhere, have been spent playing Halo 3? Not any other video game or even any other incarnation of Halo. Take a guess then meet us after the jump for a little perspective that might make you re-think your priorities and shrink your screen time...
Total time spent playing Halo 3:
2,023,153,340,764 seconds
If a number in the trillions doesn't make you pause, realize that it means roughly 64,109 years of playtime. Years. 640 centuries. 6,400 decades. More than 800 times the average human lifespan.
To knock a little more perspective into you, Bungie notes that 64,000 years ago neanderthal walked the earth and modern man had yet to set foot in Asia.
It makes you want to get offline and spend a day at the park or something, doesn't it?
I don't play Halo, but I play a million online flash games and otherwise spend a ridiculous amount of time doing absolutely nothing but trying to explore the vast corners of the Web. So even though my contribution to that astounding two trillion second count rounds up to roughly zero, I'm still re-thinking my screen time. How about you?
[ Via Geekologie ][ Image via Commorancy@Flickr ]
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Comments (3)
I've only played Halo a few times, but I did help dedicate a couple hundred hours to whatever the WoW play time it. (Which I feel may be close if not higher than the Halo 3 game if only because it came out first.)
Eventually I had to give it up because I really needed to be spending my time doing other things (like homework at the time). I can't deny that I've wasted huge amounts of time watching TV and playing other video games, but WoW was a massive time consumer in my life. When I am staying up til 3am just to 'level up' there are probably better things I could be doing. It would get tedious and mildly obsessive when I wanted to be the highest level, finish every possible Quest, and get every possible item. (Which is nigh impossible in WoW). It really wasn't very healthy.
I play WoW, and though I am only a casual player, over the last 3 years, I've spent the equivalent of 40 days in front of my computer. When ever I see the number growing, I get a little exasperated - especially when my friends and I "South Park" it and play for hours on end.
I just hit 80 a few weeks ago and I thought that would give me a break, but my friend is now killing me with getting gear. I haven't turned on my computer since Thursday and have had a relaxing and lovely time since.
Most of those hours I played were enjoyable, since I was with friends. I take it as hang out time with my best friends. The 5 of us are in the same house, we all cook for each other and enjoy each others company, all while playing.
But I do wish that that screen time can be replaced with going out or even something less stessful than getting yelled at by a bunch a jerks in a raid or dungeon.
I once spent an entire weekend playing to beat halo 2 and only went out to grab food but when I did I was so wired the sunlight seemed to make the trees, grass and cars look negative. So predator-like. I had no life then.